Frosted Ultra Detail Painting. HELP!

Hi,

I received my shipment of Shapeways models and used acrylic type paint, it failed miserably lucky I was able to remove them. It won't stick to the surface, it can be easily be removed. What am I doing wrong?

Can someone please please tell me the step how to paint a FUD model starting from taking the object out of the box. It's my first time and my budget is very short.

Cleaning- What is the best way?

Primer- what kind is the best for tiny models?

Paint- I would like to have semi-gloss type. Not too flat or too shiny, what is the best brand?

Please help! I don't want to screw up even more on my models.



The model size is about the size of a pencil, but 5cm long.

Nice! Is that an SD70tiny?

How did you clean the model before painting? I use pure acetone (the cheapest nail polish remover I can find). Here's how I do it:

https://www.shapeways.com/forum/index.php?t=msg&th=9179&a mp;start=0&

When FUD is dry after the acetone bath it should take acrylic paint with no peeling afterwards. I've brush painted and airbrushed acrylic onto FUD; one thing I always do is to 'bake' the paint onto the FUD for several minutes with a hair dryer or a 100 watt incandescent bulb. Hold the part in your hand to make sure it doesn't get too much heat.

I find the paint adheres much better after heating; Fifteen minutes after it's painted and heated I can mask it to spray another color with no lifting when the tape's removed.

Thank you soo much! I will go ahead and try this, I will keep this thread updated and try painting again!

Yes it is a SD70M train! I am making one for a T gauge layout that I am working on. Scale 1:450

Also what kind of paint do you use? That paint you used on that thread looks really nice, not too glossy or too flat.

Thanks!

Always glad to help!

The switchstands were airbrushed with True Line Trains acrylic paint: http://www.truelinetrains.ca/paint-accessories

It comes pre-thinned for spraying right out of the bottle. Badger Model Flex is the other airbrush ready acrylic paint I use - it's about half the price of True Line paint.

Wow! Thank you! It would be perfect for me to spray the most common used color onto the train, is there any paintbrush type paint that you would recommend? I don't have airbrush. Or you can use these paint that are used for airbrush as regular paint that can be used with paintbrush?

My plan:

Airbrush the entire thing with one color.

Then use ultra-fine paintbrush to apply details onto the train.

Decals will be applied afterward since it is really small.

The question is what kind of paint should I use with paintbrush (For windows, vents, some color markings, schemes, etc)

Thanks!

You can see how small the train is in the attached files. And you can see when I failed to paint it correctly but was able to remove it.

Airbrushing is definitely a must for something that small, at least for the base color. Spray cans will work, too; spray on many light coats to keep from drowning the model in paint.

Look for small artist's brushes like a 5/0 (or 00000), 4/0 or 3/0 for the fine details and use a magnifier to better control what you're painting. The airbrush ready acrylics can also be applied by brush, just make sure you clean out the brush regularly in water (the paint dries on the brush quickly).

Carefully heat up ("bake") the model after each color is applied (for something that small hold it near a light bulb). I find it makes the paint adhere better and the final layer thickness is thinner than if it was just set aside to dry.

I'm looking forward to seeing the final product!

The problem with drying is using tiny sizes like 5/0. Use a #1 or so, and it will load plenty of properly diluted paint. The secret? Get brushes that have a great tip, thick at the middle but fine at the tip. No kidding, some people paint everything, including eyes, with the same size.

Thanks, stannum.

Can you recommend a good brand of brushes to look for?

The basic guideline is sable hair, round long tip; art shops should have a handful of those, normally under the watercolor section. As for size, each brand (and even series) varies, so what one calls #0 other calls #1 or #2, in general the idea is to pick a brush with 10-15mm long hair, and 2-4mm diameter and very sharp tip (small lines) even if the middle looks thick (holds more paint). Always assuming you are using thinned acrylics, the natural hair will suffer a lot if using something with strong solvents.

If you want to ask for exact brands, try Da Vinci Harbin series 1526 and Maestro series 10 & 11, Escoda series Optimo 1210 & Reserva 1212, Isabey series 6223, Raphael series 8402, 8404 & 8408, Rosemary & Co series 33 & 99, Winsor & Newton series 7 (plain 7, not Miniature 7).